Introduction
This resource is structured into six ‘practices’ that we learned from policy actors who are working in development, consultation and evaluation of policy that directly impacts the lives of children and young people in care. Each section articulates how policy actors are practicing these critical ways of thinking, acting and relating with children, young people and each other, that together enable them to ‘give due weight’ to children and young people’s views in policy practice and program design. It includes some findings from observing and interviewing policy actors, followed by the responses, views and reflections of co-researchers who draw on their lived experience to consider how policy actors can improve or embed each practice in their work.
The practices are not ‘divisible’ but work together to form a network that policy actors can use to enact their obligations to children and young people, within the challenging organisational, cultural and political constraints of policy practice.
